The recent attacks on unions, and especially teacher unions, seem to be an attempt to convince a target audience the unions are at fault for the economic cesspool we are all swimming in.

The rhetoric goes something like this: “The public unions are sucking the state/city coffers dry with their rich paychecks and pensions”, or some variation of this. Absent from the blather by people like Wisconsin’s governor Walker, and other governors and mayors, is any real data to support their claim.

While they do put out numbers, none of them square with the what’s real. It is political posturing that seems aimed more at union busting than anything else. An element of our society, content to simply nod their heads at whatever the political party they are affiliated with says, takes the bait, and repeats it as truth. A lie repeated often enough takes on a life of semi-respectability.

Scott Walker, in 2002, was elected Milwaukee County Executive. It was during his eight year tenure that he found that he couldn’t dictate to the unions representing county workers. He actually had to engage in negotiations with them. He did not get what he wanted.

His election as Wisconsin’s Governor gave him another chance to show those pesky unions, especially those overpaid, pension rich teachers, who is boss. Through some very questionable and certainly unethical maneuvering, the republicans in the state government managed to strip the unions of some of their bargaining rights.

The problem is that the teachers and unions had, and have, nothing to do with the economic melt down.

In one state, California, the teachers unions, and their negotiated pensions, are fully funded for a minimum of 8 years, and possibly more than 15 years, depending on a single variable in projections. Other states reflect similar results if one only takes the time to dig a little.

Teachers pay into the retirement system, as does the state. The end result is a modest pension for teachers who work 25 to 30+ years in the classroom. No pension system is fully funded at any given time. It is supported each day by those still working and the investment decisions of the system. It’s not a mystery at all. Unless you want it to be.

The almost complete destruction of the worlds economy is 100% the fault of the greed mongers on Wall Street, the bond ratings agencies, and the entire real estate industry, from the agents on through the brokers, loan and title companies, banks, and appraisers. If the Eduskeptic has missed anyone in that system it is an oversight.

The big brokerage houses simply invented a method of creating something out of absolutely nothing, and then doing it again and again. The beginning and end result of what should have been an obviously unsupportable and unsustainable system was this: realtors agreed to sell houses to people who had no possible way to make the mortgage payments; the loan brokers and banks agreed to set these people up with the loans; the appraisers agreed to appraise the houses at whatever was being asked, the brokerage houses agreed to bundle the loans into “securities”, and everyone looked the other way. They were all making an enormous amounts of money.

People with no income, no assets, and no hope of paying a mortgage, found themselves the “owners” of $750,000 homes. It all fell apart at a predictable time, right when the very first teaser rate mortgages reset to the real rate, about 2 years after they were first made. Each year after that, more loans re-set, and more and more people defaulted. How this could be a surprise to anyone is a complete mystery.

How this calamity could ever be laid at the feet of unions, especially teachers unions, is an even bigger mystery. Unless, of course, the entire idea is to divert attention from what the real problems are.

It is simply a load of dung, if one is to be polite about it, shoveled by those who think that if we let big business do what they want, we’ll all be ok. Somehow, I don’t think that entirely works out too well.

As always, assume nothing, verify every thing. Do your own research. You might want to start with Michael Lewis’ latest book, The Big Short. Unless, of course, you’re content with just nodding your head.